Living on Purpose

Nothing matters more than knowing God’s purposes for your life, and nothing can compensate for not knowing them — not success, wealth, fame, or pleasure. Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without a purpose, life is trivial, petty, and pointless.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Five benefits of knowing your purpose

Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life

Dubious methods such as astrology or psychics, palm readers, or Ouija boards are a futile attempt to determine our life’s meaning.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 34). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

“I feel like a failure because I’m struggling to become something, and I don’t even know what it is. All I know how to do is to get by. Someday, if I discover my purpose, I’ll feel I’m beginning to live.”

If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how."—Friedrich Nietzsche

You need hope to cope. Dr. Bernie Siegel found he could predict which of his cancer patients would go into remission by asking, “Do you want to live to be one hundred?”

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (pp. 34-35). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Knowing your purpose simplifies your life

Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren’t. You simply ask, “Does this activity help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my life?” Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources. You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at that moment. People who don’t know their purpose try to do too much — and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 35). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

“A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.” — MSG

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Knowing your purpose focuses your life

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 35). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

You become effective by being selective.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 35). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

“...people live lives of ‘quiet desperation,’ but today a better description is aimless distraction.” Henry David Thoreau

Focusing light

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (pp. 35-36). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Colossians 3:1–2 NIV

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Ephesians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Knowing your purpose motivates your life

“This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

God will ask us two crucial questions:

First, “What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?”

Second, “What did you do with what I gave you?”

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (p. 37). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Fifty-Two Invitation Illustrations 6. It Was Thought They Could Be Saved at Another Time

The steamship Central American, on a voyage from New York to San Francisco, sprang a lead in mid-ocean. A vessel, seeing her signal of distress, bore down towards her. Perceiving her danger to be imminent, the captain of the rescue ship spoke to the Central American, asking, “What is amiss?”

“We are in bad repair, and going down; lie by till morning,” was the answer.

“Let me take your passengers on board now,” said the would be rescuer.

As it was night, the captain of the Central American did not like to transfer his passengers, lest some might be lost in the confusion, and, thinking that they could keep afloat some hours longer, replied, “Lie by till morning.”

Once again the captain of the rescue ship called, “You had better let me take them now.”

“Lie by till morning” was sounded back through the trumpet. About an hour and a half later her lights were missed, and, though no sound was heard, the Central American had gone down, and all on board perished because it was thought they could be saved at another time.

While salvation is offered afresh to you now, dear friend, let me bid you speedily to obey the promptings of God’s Spirit, and:

Hasten, hasten to be blest,

Stay not for the morrow’s sun;

Lest perdition thee arrest,

Ere the morrow is begun.